Online Platforms Drive Ireland’s €5.17 Billion Betting Market

Ireland’s betting market continues to expand, with an estimated €5.17 billion wagered across regulated channels as consumers increasingly migrate from traditional bookmakers to online and mobile platforms. Regulatory data and independent research indicate that digital betting has now overtaken in-person wagering as the dominant channel, prompting both commercial opportunity and heightened scrutiny from the country’s Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI).

Digital Milestone as Online Wagering Accelerates

The scale of the shift was underscored when the value of regulated online betting in Ireland exceeded €1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2026, the first time a single quarter has surpassed the €1 billion mark. This represented an increase of approximately 47 per cent on the previous quarter, when online wagering stood at €814.8 million. Over the same period, the value of traditional in-person betting continued to decline, confirming a structural rather than cyclical change in consumer behaviour.

The trend reflects broader developments in the European market, where online gambling accounted for a growing share of total gross gambling revenue, led by online casino products and sports betting. In Ireland, mobile applications, in-play wagering, and the consolidation of sports betting with casino-style products have all contributed to the movement of staking activity away from retail premises.

Regulator-Commissioned Research Maps Changing Habits

The behavioural dimension of the shift was documented in research commissioned by the GRAI and conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), which analysed the gambling habits of approximately 1,000 people in Ireland. Key findings include:

• Around 80 per cent of Irish gamblers hold at least one online account, and a majority hold more than one, with roughly 10 per cent maintaining four or more.
• Approximately 77 per cent of gamblers had wagered online in the previous year, while 59 per cent had gambled in person.
• Nearly four in ten people who open an online sports betting account subsequently move into other forms of gambling, such as online casino games and slots.
• Around one in five online bettors reported receiving promotional notifications from operators on a daily basis, and more than a quarter reported losing what they described as significant amounts of money.

The findings have informed the GRAI’s phased rollout of its licensing regime, under which operators are being brought under a unified regulatory framework covering advertising, player protection, and account controls.

The market’s growth is unfolding against a tightening fiscal and regulatory backdrop. Betting duty currently stands at 2 per cent of amounts wagered, while the government has signalled plans to align pool betting duty with that rate and has weighed a further increase as part of Budget 2027. Industry representatives, including bookmaker bodies, have warned that higher duties could accelerate shop closures and job losses in the retail sector, and have cautioned that tax increases risk shifting some wagering to unlicensed offshore operators.

The GRAI, established as Ireland’s independent gambling regulator, continues to implement the licensing and enforcement functions set out under the Gambling Regulation Act. Its work includes oversight of advertising standards, safeguards for vulnerable customers, and the collection of market data that is now providing the clearest picture yet of wagering activity nationwide.